Businessweek asks: Flash memory in a cheaper iPod? A $500 Mac? If the rumors about what Steve Jobs has planned for Apple are true, those moves could be just the start. Also: spy photos of headless iMac or internet hoax? you decide.
Businessweek asks: Flash memory in a cheaper iPod? A $500 Mac? If the rumors about what Steve Jobs has planned for Apple are true, those moves could be just the start. Also: spy photos of headless iMac or internet hoax? you decide.
you’re saying something labeled “iHome” is a headless imac? doubtful. more likely something along the lines of a home entertainment thingy.
Horribly fake… “Centre”
http://simonwoodside.com/weblog/2005/01/08
No, thanks!
Mmmm, at least the box and the device are real– I think this one might be real.
However, why are pictures like this always very low-res, in the current days of super-cameras??
“Horribly fake… “Centre”
” rel=”nofollow”>http://simonwoodside.com/weblog/2005/01/08″
Mmm, guess this guy indeed has a point. And, take a look at this:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/90301/wo/QX2lKw…
See, that’s the box without the added stuff. It’s even called eyeHome…
fake uk spelling and in the video you can see its moved like it weighs only a few grams…..
roger
Well many sites of said the iHome is a fake for a few reasons one of them is that the box image would be upside down if you were to hold it by the handle.
This is all Apple’s PR to get more attention to the upcoming release.
I seriously doubt Apple are behind this. It’s just the usual ‘let’s make a fake product and get the Mac users into a frenzy’ thing before MacWorld.
There was the iTablet, the iWalk, some iPDA thingy, the iPhone and now the iHome.
All fakes…
After reading the entire FolkLore.org site recently, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Jobs take apple and the Mac in a direction to sell to the masses. Jobs always wanted the mac to be the affordable, personal computer for the masses. He had envisioned a computer that would sell cheap and at a lower profit margin as they make up for it with volume.
Seems that Apple has really had to target the high end and education markets in the past to just stay alive.. now with the success of the iPod it looks like they are gaining momentum to come after the masses like Jobs had wanted from the start.
The mac never was able to be sold at that easily affordable level in the past. The original mac was supposed to be around $500 but ended up selling at $2495! (See Price Fight at Folklore.org).
There were a lot of mistakes made at Apple after the mac was first launched and it’s taken a long time to recover but it really is starting to look like they are going to make a run at it. We may be at the beginning of a new platform war. Just my thoughts at least.
In this picture
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0007.jpg
You can see the top right of the box is dented (and taped)
In this picture
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0010.jpg
Look at the lower right corner of the box. You can see a curve on the bottom right edge of the box.
In this video
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/video-0001.3gp
Roger was right that it moves like it weighs a few grams, also, the vid keeps the same angles seen in all of the pics.
The camera is also far away, why wouldn’t they get a closer pic of back of the box or the cd rom?
Also with the heat problems in such a small box there is still less ventalation in that box than my CD player. With the heat problems with the cube, don’t you think they would ventalate that tiny little box?
I call fake.
ught some one is going to get sued lol
However, why are pictures like this always very low-res, in the current days of super-cameras??
Heh. For the same reasons pictures of Bigfoot and UFOs are always grainy and underexposed — because if it were high quality we’d see how fake it is. It’s SOP for forged photography.
Sure it’s fake and I’d like to add a reason for that. Wouldn’t a iHome media center box have to have some tv connections? Like s-video, composite, antenna, etc? Wouldn’t make much sense to me unless it could work as a PVR etc… As far as I can tell there are no such connections on this iHome.
Apple would never do something as garish as plastering “iHome” across the side of the box.
For that reason alone, very fake.
Everyone can see that this is so fake…
A couple of old boxes taped together with some blatantly stuck on print outs photo’d in the same elevator as last year’s hoax? Come on and give us a break…
Besides, if Apple have something smart planned, I think (as usual) that they will catch al the hoaxers napping and have something much wilder than that to announce – or nothing special at all.
I am an Apple/Mac freak but I never believe the hype that escalates before the expo… Waitand see what actually transpires, it is less effort than all the pointless second guessing…
Apple has been selling a $800 eMac for about a year. For apple a year later to sell almost the same system without a monitor for $500? I don’t think so.
One thing we know they will do is upgrade their existing product line. So it will probably be a difficult choice beteen the $500 1.25GHz headless G4 and the upgraded $800 eMac.
It’s a piece of styrofoam/polystyrene with pictures stuck on, isn’t it?
z (IP: 69.160.48.—) has it right.
Its a prank guys. funny and to some extent probably in the right direction of whats going to be presented on tuesday but still just “a piece of styrofoam/polystyrene with pictures stuck on”.
and isn’t it amazing that this iHome thingy that Jobs is going to present on tuesday already comes in a box!!?? I’d be surprised if Mr. Jobs has any of thoose boxes ready to sell before the first spring flowers pop statrs to blossom… happily surprised that is!
/jens
Of course its a prank/hoax but it’s a fun one and harmless.
I for one hope nothing else is called “i” something. It worked ok for “iMac” because their point was the machine was really made for internet use and little more.
First of all with all Mac rumors this has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Remember with Apple it is never as cheap as you think it is rumored to be. Remember the rumors about the Ipod mini had it priced at $149. If a headless low priced Mac is really in apples future. It will probably replace the current Emac and fall in the $700 – $800 range.
All I can say is… deja vu all over again:
http://osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=7498&offset=15&rows=30
When very real screenshots of MacOS X Tiger were leaked, dozens jumped on the bandwagon of calling them fake for dubious reasons, only to be proven wrong. It appears that might happen yet again. I’d certainly say the iHome is plausible (i.e. not necessarily fake), and we’re certain to find out in two days.
For those claiming it has no video out it does appear to have mini-DVI (between the USB and miniplug ports) to which you could attach a number of dongles (RCA, component, VGA, DVI), and this is very much an approach I believe Apple would take as they prefer to have a cleaner/simpler design. However since there’s no closeup of the ports, it’s hard to say.
I see absolutely no reason why this couldn’t be a real product. I don’t see how any of the arguments here couldn’t apply to a real product, but it’s certainly hard to judge given the poor quality of the images and video.
So, time will tell… hopefully it will prove everyone shouting “fake” wrong yet again.
While it’s obvious apple will come out with a media center at some point, they are the digital hub company, and the nature of their products dictates they will do this some day. These photos are obvious fakes and i can’t belive it got this far of people giving them notice.
First, it looks like the same elevator from the imac deal, and has all the normal not making sense issues, and bad pictures etc.
But just look at them. It’s a cardboard box. Unless apple is using ports on their computers that are stickers, and crocked ones at that. Also I want to know what direction their case material group is going with the use of cardboard boxes. As you can see in the pictures, the iHome has crumpled corners, I would not accept that kind of quality. I know in from checking out the new imacs the fit and finish and overall quality of the case is bad, but i don’t think apple is going to go to this route.
I can wait for apple to come out with such a thing, but this isn’t it.
These products that looks like apple is going to announce make sense. Apple has said they want to get to 5%, well they need a model that everyone will buy. They know they can sell people ipods for 300-500 bucks, in massive amounts. For a little more they can sell a ton of computers. They have been churning out more and more apps. The only part of the user base that buys new apps are the people with the newer computers that tend to keep buying stuff, not those with an ancient box running os9. By getting userbase up they will sell a lot of software, plus just keep their platform viable to developers. Unlike just a few years ago, they now have a all around product people will want. They have an OS that isn’t so horrid people refuse to use, like they did with OS9, OSX has gotten very nice. Their hardware has become much better for the price.
A powermac may be as cheap as a wintel box, but few people are going for the high end computer market, they are looking for a basic computer, and for them apple is priced way out. And plenty of people have their monitors, or just don’t want to be stuck with the same monitor. Apple doesn’t need to make this thing massive cheap, just needs to price it for what it should be. 800 bucks and everyone will be happy.
I think things like the “iHome” are part of the next phase for them, not right now, but maybe in a year they will get there if they do great with the mini mac. But who knows, maybe this cheap computer is indeed such a devise, and the code named projects are actually the software for it, and not various office apps.
Bascule, did you even look at the pictures? The headless mac may be very real, but those pictures are not even close. The pictured iHome is quite obviously made of cardboard.
In this picture.
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0010.jpg
The bottom right of the box is clearly caved in.
“Apple has been selling a $800 eMac for about a year. For apple a year later to sell almost the same system without a monitor for $500? I don’t think so.
”
The thing you forget is the problem with eMacs and iMacs is not everyone wants a monitor attached. Many people would pay the same amount for an emac without a monitor as with it and see it as a bonus to not have the monitor. It then becomes a nice small cheap box. The monitor on the emac makes it pretty worthless to everyone but schools liek it was intended, but even then it’s not allways great.
People upgrade monitors on completely different cycles then their computer. The only reason the original iMac did so well was really a issue of when it came out. It came out right when computers for people were really starting to take off, so people either didn’t have a computer, or what they had was some old 486 with a poor monitor, so they were more then happy to get rid of everything and start new with an all in one. Now things have changed, most people have nice 17″ crts or even LCDs now they they either bought separate or got with their computer from 5-6 years ago when they bought their dell or gateway. They don’t have a urge to get rid of it. Especially with sizes of LCDs going up and prices coming down, people are just waiting for a better deal there. The time of all in ones has really died and become more of a niche market again.
Apple has been seeing this in the poor sales of emacs, and how the imacs have done great when first released but soon had sales fade as all those who would buy one basically have bought them. They need a nice steady stream of people buying a basic mac, much like their constant stream of people buying ipods.
Apple products don’t need to be priced lower because way too many people are willing to pay the exorbitant prices Apple currently charges. Look at the iPod. Way overpriced, yet it sells like hotcakes. Why would Apple want to charge less? They’re in business to make money, after all.
Video: watch again. It is not as light as it appears. The person drags it out and the back right corner is still touching the foam. That is why it appears to be light. When it’s pulled forward, it’s pivoting on the foam. Everything is white and that obscures the ‘weight’ perception. Also, the power supply is obviously external and resides on the right side of the foam making it lighter than normal. If it is fake, it’s not simple job b/c that box is not opaque and you can see what looks like a heat sink/plastic airflow or supports on the inside.
Centre: Maybe it’s not the US version or maybe it really is called Centre b/c everything else is boringly called called Center.
The box probably acts as a wifi unit/iTunes server. Everything about it makes sense with the other products and vision of Apple.
Not sure where you get the iPod being way overpriced. No one has yet to come up with anything close to it. Anything that is similar isn’t very desirable to people.
Apple products come in pretty close when lined up with something of similar class. But yes, apples products do end up costing more. Mainly you are paying for something to no look like butt. Sadly Apple is one of the few companies that understands products need to look good to. Many don’t care how cheap someone else’s monitor compared to apples are, if the casing looks like butt, why on earth would you buy it, after all your buying something you stare at the whole time you use your computer. That or simple things like someone wants OSX, so you pay.
I agree that the dude handles the unit as if it wieghs next to nothing.
Also in the video, it looks to me like the reflection off the front shows parrellel vertical lines, just the like the bracing on a cardboard box. I believe we are looking at a cardboard box made of shiny white cardboard.
To the guy who things he sees a headsink: download the image, circle what you’re looking at and host it at imageshack.
Also, i agree that $500 seems overpriced if its spec’d similar to the eMac. Obviously $500 is an affordable price for a computer, but that’s pretty old technology.
…the latest iPrank.
wut about a merger between apple and pixar?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/09/business/apple.html
“Remember, he’s a mogul in both Silicon Valley and Hollywood.”
cheers!
I am currently on an iBook G4, and the ports on the iHome are identical to those on my iBook. Same order even! The list on my iBook is:
1.) Telephone Jack
2.) Ethernet Port
3.) Firewire Port
4.) 2 – USB Ports
5.) Mini-VGA Port
6.) Headphone Jack
There is what appears to be a port on the left (not on my iBook) that is there for powering the device.
I’ll remove my initial claim of “plausible” and replace that with “plausible but unlikely (with caveats)”. I see what others were pointing out about how through the grainy quality you can see it’s a cardboard box with stickered on ports, but there’s still a slight possibility that it’s a cardboard mockup of the real device (although from what appears to be rather poor quality of the construction, be sure to emphasize ‘slim’)
At any rate, we’ll be certain in two days…
a portable ipod like device that can play mp3/ogg, FM/AM radio, shortwave radio, video and VoIP+wifi.
In these images:
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0007.jpg
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0008.jpg
http://dms.tecknohost.com/macrumors/i/ihome/Photo-0010.jpg
It’s fairly visible that the Apple logo and “iHome” text are printed on a sheet of 8.5×11″ paper.
Fake!
Dude its a freaking ipod some one photo-choped.
This got debunked within 30 seconds of the posting a few days ago. It is so obviously a fake it’s not even worth discussing any further
And note to the idiots who did this:
Get a girlfriend and try to impress her. The attention and dividends are much better.
It’s the most georgously styled computer case you’ve ever seen. The only part to break it’s fluid lines is a crank handle on one side. Turn the handle and the box plays music, after about 15 seconds the top of the box pops off and up springs a cardboard likeness of a smiling Steve Jobs. All this for only $499.
Its not too hard to figure out why the picture quality is bad…
1) Download the picture
2) strings Photo-0001.jpg|more
3) See that it was taken with a Samsung SGH-D500 camera phone.
He is totally correct. Checked all the images, all done with that camera phone.
Why would apple call a headless mac the iHome and immediatly turn off any potential business users when they could call it the xMac (say) and open up another potential market?
Apple may not have much market share in the corporate market but they have been making moves towards business users and a headless, fairly cheap, machine capable of office tasks (word processing, internet, email etc) would be a valid contender for corporate desktops who would then be targets for xserve, xserve-raid, xsan etc sales (especially if the xMac can act as a thin client for an xserve) so would they really want to throw away any credibility such as device would have in a big potential market just for the sake of a (not that great anyway, xMac is far cooler) name?
A reader on engadget, opined that the iHome is two iBooks put together with a strip of gray paper hiding the ports on one of them. Definite possibility. I think that Apple will introduce a low priced headless iMac/media center tomorrow, but this ain’t it.
Well, this was made up, so iHome is guess by them.
Far as the headless mac, I like the name MiniMac
that or I’d like to see them get retro and go with calling it just the Apple. Or The Apple III or something like that.
Apple probably will come up for some new name for it, since this will be a whole new family and have them have 5 nice families, the ibook, powerbook, imac, powermac, (the emac and Xserves arn’t really in the same fold).
I gotta say Im amazed by the amount of attention and the number of people who have bought into this harmless little prank…!
Obviously Apple draws a lot of attention if some bored dudes can get all eyes of the OS community towards their home-grown elevator-based friday-fun…
Anyway, really looking forward to see what Mr. Jobs has up his sleeve!!
BR/jens
I personally think it is a real machine. Printed paper doesn’t reflect the light like it does. So i think the plastic iHome is a real product.
what I’d really love is a micromachine.
Something like a 12″ screen boxed with an EPIA-like mini mainboard, and a g4 in an integrated package. Basically a non-portable ibook.
It would be killer seller for shops and points of presence, a nice second box or miniserver/gw/fw, useful for public relations in places where great stuff is not very needed, and in the end, ubercool
I gotta say Im amazed by the amount of attention and the number of people who have bought into this harmless little prank…!
Why ? People have been clamouring for a “headless iMac” since the first iMac was released (longer, if anything). Of course the possibility of such a machine is going to generate a great deal of interest.
Why ? People have been clamouring for a “headless iMac” since the first iMac was released (longer, if anything). Of course the possibility of such a machine is going to generate a great deal of interest.
yes! Agreed! But all this attention aimed at that iBook-covered-in-paper-and-packaged-in-printed-paper and the fact that people are actually buying into it is priceless!!!
br/jens
“Mainly you are paying for something to no look like butt. Sadly Apple is one of the few companies that understands products need to look good to.”
You’ve got to be kidding. This is common misconception among prissy Mac users that even their computers need to be pretty. Gee, too bad Macs don’t come in pastel colors yet, right?
A computer is a tool, an appliance. Who cares what it looks like? Only that it gets the job done and doesn’t make you sell an vital organs to get. Does your coffeemaker need to be elegant? How about your washing machine? What about your blender? Is your whole house filled with nothing but aesthetic machines?
Yes, the word is prissy.
“yes! Agreed! But all this attention aimed at that iBook-covered-in-paper-and-packaged-in-printed-paper and the fact that people are actually buying into it is priceless!!! ”
Can’t say I understand why somebody would even go through this much trouble for a hoax like this. Do people really have nothing better to do with their time?
Everthing I own is square and colorless. Things work better when they’re ugly…everyone knows that!
Korsakov! You are a bloody communist 🙂 Not that I am a capitalist myself.. but I like beautifull, classy things…
If your computer looks nice you can have it in your living room and not look like you have a washing mashing under your TV… Imagine the big Athlon’s fan’s turning on and making a Boeing noise, just when you were – nearly- getting laid!
Go figure why the iPod sells pretty well. Isn’t it pricey? Can’t you get a simliar device for a cheaper price?
Since I bought an iBook, in december, I haven’t turned on my 3Ghz PC more than twice. Both times were to get my data. I don’t notice Panther is much more stable than XP, nor does it actually get my work done faster (the machine is much slower than my PC and I notice eclipse is quite slower).
But but but… I can work for a longer time, just to watch the ***cking beauty of the whole thing 🙂
Well, I guess I like the os functionality too… but face it, I prefer the mace because the icons are just cuter 🙂